Beneficial

That's the only way I can describe the freezers and pantry at the moment.

I've been really reducing my grocery shopping (the amount of stuff I buy, not necessarily money out) ... so we are pretty much dried up on the snacks and such.

I mean, shoot, the one shelf is normally stuffed with chips, breads, and other junk snacky types of foods. But since Sonny Boy hasn't been around, and all the boys with him (and girls) and Princes is working odd hours, we've pretty much cleaned out that shelf and just not bought any more ... which is ok because we ARE trying to eat healthier.

So when I got the text message from our friends that they had 10 'plump' b/s chicken thighs, and would we like to grill them up at our house and hang out for a bit, I had a slight anxiety attack.

What to serve for snacks? What to serve as a side. I mean, this is like an hour notice after a BUSY day. We said YES (of course) and hurried up to finish our projects in process (Hubby hanging Christmas lights and me cleaning up after the yard sale).

I had some baby carrots and celery in fridge. But NO ranch (how is that possible??). Skip that thought.

I have salsa, but no 'fresh' chips. Skip that one too.

Ahhh. Cheese. Sliced up 1/2 lb of sharp cheddar and a 1/2 lb of monterey jack. Laid them out on a tray and pulled out a sleeve of crackers, but decided against them as I'm not sure how fresh they were (didn't want to open them!).

Found a couple of half empty canisters of nuts and mixed them up in a dish (chocolate and peanut butter Emeralds nuts are AWESOME by the way!)

And, I made 2 boxes of scalloped taters. Would have made from scratch, but I was so tired ... and just didn't have the motivation to get everything out and slice it and such. Not a big deal normally, but that night it was.

I also had some ciabatti garlic bread in the freezer that was picked up a while ago in the freezer. So thankful that I haven't been adding bread to every meal lately!

You know what? It was an excellent meal. Great company, relaxed and tasty. I really think that if the pantry had been stuffed full and overflowing as it has been for the past several years, I would have had a lot more to choose from, but I would have lost a lot of time in deciding and then finding!

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